Police Investigate Assault of Transgender Teen

Police on Tuesday were investigating reports of a brutal assault of a transgender teen who was using a high school bathroom in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb.

The 15-year-old student told officers he was leaving a boy’s bathroom at Hercules High School on Monday when three teenage boys pushed him inside a handicapped stall and physically and sexually assaulted him, Hercules police Detective Connie Van Putten said.

The teen was taken to a hospital for treatment. Authorities said he was released Monday evening and went home to his parents.

"He walked himself to the health center, and was obviously very upset when he talked to officers," Van Putten said. "He is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances."

A new California law allows students in public schools to use the bathrooms that match the gender with which they identify, and the teen had opted to use the boy’s bathroom.

Van Putten said the attackers reportedly made disparaging remarks to the student, allowing police to treat the incident as a hate crime.

Detectives were interviewing students on the campus about 20 miles northeast of San Francisco. No suspects had been identified.

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A referendum to overturn a California law that gives transgender students protections including the right to use the public school restrooms of their choice will not appear on the November ballot after its backers failed to gather enough voter signatures